dissident Republican IRA..car bomb...

3rd car bombing in april

here is some recent news... just incase your interested

BELFAST — Northern Ireland's first minister condemned Friday a car bomb outside a police station as an "evil and cowardly attack", as security forces warned of the highest threat here for 12 years.
The bomb exploded in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, at about 11:25 pm (2225 GMT) Thursday, said a spokeswoman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, adding that two people, including an elderly woman, were slightly injured.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but security forces had warned hours earlier that dissident republicans now posed the biggest threat to security here since the Omagh bombing in 1998, which killed 29 people.
"This is an evil and cowardly attack by people who have nothing to offer but murder and mayhem," said First Minister Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which shares power in the devolved administration here.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, from the republican Sinn Fein party, added that the attack -- which came just two weeks before Britain's general election on May 6 -- would not affect the peace process.
"Whoever carried this out offers nothing but hardship, division and pain. We cannot allow them to define our future. They will not break the will of the community," he said.
The police station was unoccupied when the blast went off -- the police had been on their way into town at the time -- and the alarm was raised by local firemen who heard a series of gunshots before spotting a suspicious vehicle.
It was the second bombing in Northern Ireland since the handover of sensitive policing and justice powers earlier this month from London to Belfast, a vital step on the long-troubled province's path to peace.
A bomb exploded near the headquarters of Britain's MI5 security agency in a Belfast suburb on April 12, just minutes after the powers were transferred.
Nobody was seriously injured in the attack, which was claimed by the dissident Republican IRA.
Thursday's attack was also the second attempt to detonate a car bomb outside the Newtownhamilton police station this month. The first, on April 13, was defused by the army.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin deplored the latest bomb as a "reckless and senseless attack", saying: "Violence and coercion serve no purpose in modern Ireland other than to delay reconciliation."
The recent attacks, which included one on the Newry courthouse and one on the policing board headquarters in Belfast, have sent shudders through the security services on both sides of the Irish border.
"This is probably as severe a situation as we have seen since that Real IRA bombing campaign of 1997 going into 1998," a senior police source said Thursday, referring to the attacks that culminated in the Omagh bombing.
"It feels to us, just looking at it in every way, that this has picked up in terms of intensity and severity."
More than 3,500 people died in around three decades of civil strife in Northern Ireland between Catholics who wanted the province to become part of the Republic of Ireland and Protestants who wanted to stay within Britain.
The violence largely ended with the signing of the 1998 Good Friday peace accords, which paved the way for the current power-sharing administration between the Protestant DUP and the Catholic Sinn Fein parties.
The main paramilitary groups including the IRA have laid down their arms, but sporadic violence has continued to plague the province, including the killing of two British soldiers and a policeman last year.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hDb1aNuvcm0om545kMp6i4o1Q5kw

blessed are the meek

HEllo! so this week was local outreach week .. we did a ton of stuff so i will quickly sum it up.. we went door to door with letters saying how we appreciated the hosptiatily of the people here and if there is any gardenign we could do to let us know and we gave them chocolate and flowers.. we had some people really appreciate what we did and give us hugs and invite us in and others slamed doors in our faces or ripped up the letters and threw the chocolate at us.. we also went down town one day with just a bundle of flowers and sat on a bench or walked aroudn and when we saw someone we though could us a smile we went and blessed them with a flower and prayed for them. people were really thank ful and i only had 2 people reject my flowers so that was great. . i really enjoyed this..we went and picked up rubbish from streets and bushes and sidewalks.. it was great.. i enjoyed doing practical work to bless people. .. anwyays thats all i have for now.. thanks for keeping me in your prayers i just thought i would write a quick update.. miss you and love you all.
love brooke

so its april

the month of march seemed to drag on and on.. but now its finally april.. the weather started to get sunny and warm.. until recent that is.. we have had a week where it has done nothing but rain and wind.. and when i say rain i mean rain.. pouring early morning and all through the night.. we even had a bit of snow one day.. i wont talk about that to much because i know how dry it is back home and i dont want every one moving over here.. these past few weeks have been really good. we had our dts leader speak for a few days on reconcilliation and what that looks like in belfast and then we had a man named Alec who runs a design Dts speak on decipling the nations. this week a guy named Emanuell has been our speaker and we have had soem really good talks and ministry time. this next we is local out reach week, i am heading up to bambridge to learn about a radio station that ywam is connected with called shine fm.. we will be doing some radio training and hopefully actually doing a broadcast from out there which will reach all over north ireland. i get back from bambridge on next friday and after that i only have 2 weeks left in the beautiful damp country. i cant beleive how fast time has gone by... i am excited to come home though and be with my sister as she is getting married real soon and i have actually been accepted onto staff at gull lake again this summer.. i have been prayin for rain for you guys and will continue to pray that god sends the rain from here over to you guys. i love you all and cant wait to share my expierence here with you when i come home. till then..

god blesss

brooke

just a quick note..

hey guys sorry i have not writen its been pretty busy. we just got back from dublin where we were working at a leadership conference.. serving food and such. it was really a good time of amaazing worship and teachings.. we evern got a big of free time to seee the city.. it really is a beautiful city. and you dont have be afraid of saying yoru in ireland and gettin gbeat up.. what i mean by this is.. in belfast the city where i am living.. we live on a road that firmly believes that we are in britian.a nd ify ou say you are in irealnd you will be in a lot of trouble.. the road next to us is separted by a phyical wall.. that is probably i dunno maybe 30 ft tall and the gates to the other street are only onpen during the day.. but the other side is called the falls road and they are catholic people and beleive we are in ireland so if you sya you live on the shankill.. the road i live on.. you will be in trouble so you really ahve to watch out for where you are or you could be in trouble.. but over all its been good livign here. really wierd to see a city so separeted and mostly by religion.. they always ask you if you are catholic or protistant.. its weird.. and when we try and talk to the peopel about jesus they say .. " we are tired of hearing about jesus.. he is the only thing people talk about over here and look where that has gotten us.."..its really hard to reach out the people when its religion that is deviding this city its pretty crazy the division between the two sides.. i work with a kids club during the week and we reach out to the kids in the univeristy area. try and keep them off the streets and out of trouble cause they live in a pretty crappy area.. this country really needs help. and there is an election coming up so things are starting to get out of hand again.. they think that the troubles might be starting up again.. .
st patricks day was crazy. we went with a church and handed out free burgers in the university area to try and encourage the family atmosphere but people had been out drinking at 8 in the mormning and said they woudl be out until 8 the next mornign.. last year there was riots and really big racisit acts going on.. they would storm the romanian houses and chased them out .. its really crazy cause you just dont think things liek that still happen. but they do.. anyways it was quite the expirience being here on st pattircks day the crazy thing is only half the city.. if that.. celebrate it or even acknowlege its a holiday..most of the city .. especially the street i am on.. just ignore it and definately dont recognize it as a holiday. crazy going from one extreem to the next one street apart. anywyays i dont have much time left on the comupter so ireally should go. ill try and update more..

p.s MY SISTERS GETTING MARRIED

brooke sucks at blogging

hello everyoen. i am so sorry it s been forever. i have come to the conclusion that i suck at blogging. but i am gonna try real hard to do better.. this message might have alot of grammer errors or spelling mistakes.. i am using a computer that is a minature laptop and the keys are real close together so its hard for me to type..
so my sister is getting married... july 3.. this preseneted me with a bit of a problem. my team leaves for outreach april 26 and gets back the last week in july.. therefore i am not able to go on out reach with my team. i will be comin gback in the end of april because ther e was no way i could go on outreach and make my sisters wedding and my leaders didnt want me to leave early from out reach.. i dont know the exact date of my return but i know its around april 20-25
these past few weeks have been crazy. we did a teaching on identity whihc was really cool and i could see that me and my dad have the exact same personality.. also there was this one night where a guy on my team.. who was from south africa.. collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital.. he had a few strokes in the past so although the doctors could not find anything wrong with him they ruled it as a siezure..
the same night we had some interesting things happen.. some kids on my team cast out spirits that were in a girl on my team..and then cast htem out of our entire house.. room to room. that was.. interesting..
this week we leared about the holy spirit. the teaching was good. but unfortuantely i was only able to go to one day of lecutres.. tuesday night i . being the kluts i am.. smacked my nose super hard on the bed.. giving myself a concussion.. i had to have 2 boys carry me down the four flights of steps its takes to get upstairs into a car where 2 staff members escorted me to the hostpital.. where i remained until 230 am.. the doctors said they dont think i broke my nose.. and gave me some drugs and sent me home tellin gme to be more careful and get lots of rest.. so to say the least i looked pretty aweful. with a black eye swollen face and a bumb on my nose.. haha. but it makes for a good story i think.
i really enjoy the church i am attending.. i love it infact.. you can download there sermons on i tunes so when i get hom ei will still be able to be connected ot them which is awesome
i also have mentined my friend from israel.. her name is rajaa. and me and her have become quite close friends.. she has no money and is over in irealnd on ywam on a ywam scholership.. where they take kids who cant afford to be there and pay for there lecture and outreach phases.. all they have to pay for is there plane tickets.. my friend does not have enough money for a plan ticket to her outreach location. so with my parents permission i am giong to help her get there.. i would like to ask that you .. as my supporters also keep rajaa in your prayers.. it is really hard for her..
thanks everyone for supporting me.. i look forward to seeing you all and telling you all of the great things god has taught me in my life

love you all

so its been a while

so its been a while since i last wrote.. so i thought i should right a little update.. i found a church here that i quite enjoy.. its very small and really feel at home. .. some of you may know the band blue tree. they were the main worship band at yc last year.. they attend the church that i go to.. which is pretty cool .. and wednesday night they are sharing about a trip they took to thialand so i am gong to try and make it.. every wednessday night i have a local out reach thing that i do.. there is agroup of 8 of us students who go and work at a kids klub.. . its for kids ages 5 - 11. . so its pretty cool.. we havent actually started yet but we start this wednesday. we did have a few meetings and its going to be pretty cool.. kind of like dvbs.. every wedneswsday with lots of games. and fun bible stories and stuff.. so thats pretty cool i guess. also we got our outreach options this past week and we had to pray and decide where we wanted to go over a weekend. which really was not much time. the options both involved a month of outreach throughout the republic of ireland.. and then one will go to South africa. and the other to israel wich is actually pretty cool cause we have 2 students from south africa and one from israel.. the girl from israel is actually one of my closest friend on the dts.. i chose to go to israel.

i am not 100 percent sure ifthats where i will be going but i will find out this week and lt you guys know.
i am still pretty homesick and it feels liek the feeling is here to stay .. please continue to pray.
thanks for the continued support.. both financially and prayerfully..
ill try and post more often

please pray

hey everyone. as you probably know i am having a hard time being here .. i feel like i confused gods calling with my own desires to come to ireland. and i am not at peace being here. a couple days ago the girls here though ti was demon possed and was being attacked and needed to have major prayer to get the demons out of me.. well i can tell you i am not demon possed. and the fact they say that just makes it harder being away.. sometimes i wish i was back home. please pray that it gets better cause this will be the hardest time if i am constantly feeling like i shouldnt be here and wanting to come home.. thanks.

i uploaded pictures on my facebook.. feel free to take a look. lov eyou all. miss you very much.

love brooke

just a quick note

hey everyone .. Ireland is amazing.. i had a good flight.. had 3 seats to myself so i claimed them and tried to sleep. i am doing good.i miss home quite a bit.. but i know god is gonna do amazing things. we did some orientation today and will be doing that fro the next 3 days then we start lectures and stuff so it will be good. sorry this note had to be short because i have so many emails to reply to.. thanks for all your support. i cant wait to tell you all about whats god has going on.. love you talk to you soon;)
p.s i have amazing dts students with me.. and the landscape here is amazing. .. really pretty..

leaving. . . for real.

these past few weeks have been a blur.. i dont know how it went from being 47 days .. to 32 days.. to 12 days till i leave. its crazy. seems like it was only a couple days ago i was filling out the application and praying to be accepted. .

well, naturally, i am nervous... scared.. for sure i have thought over my decision to go,.. contemplating if i am making the right choice.. leaving my family. boyfriend and every thing i know and love for 7 months.. where i will have to meet and make friends with new people, be under the care of people i have only known threw brief email conversations. . but most of all put my whole life in God's hands and completely trust him. . And after many tears, prayer and talks i have decided this is something i need to do.. i am so excited to see what God has in store for me.

this will probably be the last blog i write until i am actually over in ireland... and when i am over there i dont know how often i will get to write. . but please continue to pray for me.. for my safety, that i will connect well with my leaders and team mates . .

i remember when i was going on my trip to colombia our team had to memorize a few verses from James.. and now that i look back on these verses i think they work well for my time in ireland.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

the scariest thing is realizing that i am leaving .. for real . ..